Part 1

VOL. XXXIV. No. 8.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”

* * * * *

AUGUST, 1880.

_CONTENTS:_

EDITORIAL.

ANNUAL MEETINGS 225 FINANCIAL NOTICE 225 PARAGRAPHS 226 HARD CASES 228 TEACHER OR MISSIONARY, WHICH? 229 WRONGS OF THE PONCAS 230 THE NEGRO ON THE INDIAN 231 EADLE KEAHTAH TOH 232 BLACK MISSIONARIES FOR AFRICA: Rev. G. D. Pike, D. D. 235 ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 237 AFRICAN NOTES 238

THE FREEDMEN.

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY—TALLADEGA COLLEGE 239 BEREA COLLEGE: Secretary Strieby 242 TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY: Pres’t De Forest 243 BREWER NORMAL SCHOOL: J.D. Backenstose 244 STORRS SCHOOL, ATLANTA, GA.—WOODBRIDGE, N. C. 245 ALABAMA: Rev. W. H. Ash 247

THE CHINESE.

MISSION WORK AMONG THE MINERS 248

RECEIPTS 250

CONSTITUTION 253

AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS 254

* * * * *

NEW YORK.

Published by the American Missionary Association, ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.

Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.

Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter.

American Missionary Association.

56 READE STREET, N. Y.

PRESIDENT.

HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio. Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis. Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass. ANDREW LESTER, Esq., N. Y. Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me. Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct. WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I. Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass. Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I. Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I. Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. J. Rev. EDWARD BEECHER, D.D., N. Y. Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill. Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C. Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La. HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich. Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H. Rev. EDWARD HAWES, D.D., Ct. DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio. Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt. SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y. Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn. Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y. Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon. Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa. Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill. EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H. DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J. Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct. Rev. W. L. GAGE, D.D., Ct. A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y. Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio. Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn. Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn. Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California. Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon. Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C. Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis. S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass. PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass. Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass. Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa. Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct. Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct. Sir PETER COATS, Scotland. Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng. WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y. J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass. E. A. GRAVES, Esq., N. J. Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ill. DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct. A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass. Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y. FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt. JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., R. I. Rev. E. P. GOODWIN, D. D., Ill. Rev. C. L. GOODELL, D. D., Mo. J. W. SCOVILLE, Esq., Ill. E. W. BLATCHFORD, Esq., Ill. C. D. TALCOTT, Esq., Ct. Rev. JOHN K. MCLEAN, D.D., Cal. Rev. RICHARD CORDLEY, D.D., Kansas.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_. REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_. REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.

H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._ REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

ALONZO S. BALL, A. S. BARNES, GEO. M. BOYNTON, WM. B. BROWN, C. T. CHRISTENSEN, CLINTON B. FISK, ADDISON P. FOSTER, S. B. HALLIDAY, SAMUEL HOLMES, CHARLES A. HULL, EDGAR KETCHUM, CHAS. L. MEAD, WM. T. PRATT, J. A. SHOUDY, JOHN H. WASHBURN, G. B. WILLCOX.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary,” to Rev. C. C. PAINTER, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

* * * * *

VOL. XXXIV. AUGUST, 1880. No. 8.

* * * * *

American Missionary Association.

* * * * *

ANNUAL MEETING.

The next Annual Meeting of the AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION will be held in Norwich, Ct., in the Broadway Church, commencing Tuesday, October 12, at 3 P. M.

Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., of New York City, will preach the Sermon. Other addresses and papers will be announced hereafter.

The time is fixed to meet the convenience of those who wish to attend our meeting as well as those of the American Board, the State Conference, and the National Council.

FINANCIAL NOTICE.

Only two months remain of our fiscal year. We regret to say that a debt of nearly $20,000 is impending. This arises from the encouragement which the prosperity of the country at the beginning of our fiscal year gave us to make some additional appropriations to meet the most urgent calls that pressed upon us from the field. A decline in that prosperity has been intensified by the drought in many parts of the country, and our receipts for our regular work have fallen off.

We give the notice thus early that pastors and churches who sympathize with us and in our work, and in our effort to avoid a debt, may take immediate steps to avert the danger. We are confident that if the collections of churches that are behind in their offerings, and those that are set down for August and September, are promptly and generously made, the deficiency will be covered; but, fearing this may not in all cases be done, we venture to ask individuals having our cause at heart to assure the certainty by additional contributions.

The pastors and officers of the churches can be our most efficient helpers by securing collections and making remittances promptly. We earnestly invoke the aid of our friends. A debt at the close of this year (September 30) will compel harmful retrenchment for the next. The field has never been more fruitful in good results. The command of the Master is, “Go forward.” We cannot go into the Red Sea of debt. Will our friends wield the rod of Moses and open the waters for us?

PARAGRAPHS.

_Mrs. Sarah Spees_, who died at York, Nebraska, June 10th, was for many years one of our faithful workers among the Indians at Red Lake, Minn. Born in 1832, at Nelson, Ohio, she was converted at the age of fourteen years, and took at once strong and decided grounds for Christ. She was for a time a pupil of Mr. Sturgis, of Micronesia, who inspired her with missionary zeal. Soon after her marriage to the Rev. Francis Spees, she went with him to his missionary field among the Chippewas of Minnesota, bearing the severest privations. The journey required great fortitude. The Indians were in the rudest state of heathenism, and life itself was not secure. Amid scenes of danger and peril, she never shrank or wavered, or regretted that she had entered on so arduous a work. For three years, Mr. and Mrs. Spees labored among these people, and then left them for a quieter work at Tabor, Iowa. Ten years later, the way was opened for their return, and no sooner were they back among the red faces than a precious revival was enjoyed among the Government employees. In addition to her work as missionary, Mrs. Spees added the care of the Girl’s Boarding School. This was too great a tax upon her, and after a few years her strength gave out, and she was obliged to rest. For three years she waited by the river. Her pastor says that often, when visiting her in her feebleness, he found her wearied with the slow progress of the work of Christ on earth, and turning over in her mind how money could be raised for the spread of the Gospel. Her work well done, she has now entered upon the “rest that remaineth to the people of God.”

* * * * *

_The Pastor of the Central Congregational Church_ of Brooklyn must take a great deal of solid satisfaction in the noble missionary work of its Sunday-school. Thoroughly imbued as he is with the mission spirit, he does not fail to impart something of it even to the lambs of his flock. This school is also blessed with one of the most earnest and successful Christian workers of the city as its superintendent, and, therefore, it is not surprising that, in addition to its own local missionary work, it supports, this year, _four_ missionaries—one in the foreign field, and three among the Freedmen. We take great pleasure in referring to this school, whose example might be followed by many others with great benefit to the cause of missions, and, also, to the schools themselves.

* * * * *

If the person who sent us a card, post-marked “Hartford, Conn., June 24,” but _without name or signature_, will send us his name, we will gladly answer his inquiry.

* * * * *

_A Burst of Patriotism._—On the Confederate Decoration Day, at Montgomery, Alabama, this year, the Memorial Address was delivered by Tennent Lomax, Esq., son of Gen. Lomax, who fell at the battle of Seven Pines, and whose monument, the principal one in the cemetery at the capital, received the special floral attentions of the day. We give an extract from the oration as printed in the local daily:

“Let us again to-day, standing upon this sacred spot, extend the hand of perfect reconciliation to our fellow citizens of the North, and ask them to clasp that hand in the true spirit of fraternal love, and to live with us as a band of brothers, united in one grand enterprise, the advancement of the honor, the interest, and the glory, of our common country; and to pray with us to almighty God to hasten the advent of that day, for it must surely come, when the star-spangled banner, ‘with not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured,’ shall float, not over ‘a country dissevered, discordant, belligerent,’ but over a union of co-equal States, re-united and bound together by a golden chain of unbroken friendship.”

* * * * *

_At the meeting_ of the North Carolina Conference at Dudley, in May, one of the delegates, Deacon Stevens, of Beaufort, as he was preparing his pipe, heard the little children of his host remarking to themselves about the poison of tobacco, and the bad practice of using it. His thought was started. He went out to get away by himself for a smoke. He observed that the people about him were not indulging in that habit. At the end of the three days’ meeting, he searched about the audience room to see if there were any of the defilements of tobacco. He found none. That church, (Rev. D. Peebles, pastor,) and its Band of Hope eschew tobacco as well as all intoxicating drinks. The deacon went home convinced, as he said, that it was a “dirty, ugly, mean habit.” He joined in starting a Band of Hope, and told his experience as above narrated. “A little child shall lead them.” The little ones did not address him, but he thought that they intended their remarks for his benefit.

* * * * *

_Mr. Spurgeon_ finds caste even in England. He says: “I know several half-sovereign people who would not think of asking a half-a-crown to tea, and there is a very strong aversion on the part of the half-crowns to the three-penny pieces; and, perhaps, a stronger aversion still on the part of the three-pennies to anything coppery. I have heard of a Christian minister in this country now, who, I am told, is humble and useful and talented, but there is not a congregation that will have him for its minister. He was nearly starved to death a few years ago, and the great sin he has committed is that he married a black wife. Now, you would not like a minister’s black wife; you know you would not. Up comes the caste feeling directly. We condemn it in the Hindoo, and here it comes in this country. We like a negro if he has been a slave, and we raise money for him when we would not for a white man. Now, I do not think a black man is any better than a white man, and I do not think that because a man is green he is at all superior. I believe that we are all pretty nearly equal, and that God made of one blood all nations on the face of the earth. But we want to hear these stories about caste in India that we may be taught to avoid it here; and if it were not for these follies, vanities, and prides of human nature, carried out to extremity abroad, we might not so readily see them to be evils in what is thought to be a mild form at home”.

* * * * *

TWO CONVENTIONS.

During the sitting of the Virginia Republican Convention at Staunton, the members were as free from molestation as they would have been at Worcester, Mass., and the hotels were open for their entertainment, white and black alike. For three days, colored men took their meals in common with white men and women in the public dining-rooms of houses kept by life-long democrats. One day, at the principal hotel, a black man was seen dining with representatives of some of the oldest families of the State; other colored men sat at different tables around the room; while a large number of staunch democrats, men and women, went on with their meals as if the scene was not an unusual one. Whether this is due to a change of sentiment, or to policy induced by fear of the re-adjusters, may be open to doubt, but the fact is significant. No less so is the fact that not a single colored man had a seat in the Convention at Cincinnati. If the unusual treatment of the negro voter in Virginia is due to a change of sentiment, this change is not so observably great in the Union at large. If due to fear, this fear is not so great in other States as in this where the colored line has been broken. This would seem to indicate that a solid front will be maintained longer on national than on State issues. We have discharged our duty in regard to these facts when we have simply stated them. Their cause and significance we leave to others; while we take the opportunity for saying, that not until the negro voter, by his intelligence and virtue, commands the respect of his fellow-citizens, can he be other than an object of contempt and abuse when weak, and of fear when strong; and a source of danger, whether weak or strong.

* * * * *

HARD CASES.

“The destruction of the poor is their poverty.” This is illustrated not alone in the history of families, but of missionary enterprises. Poverty, long continued and excessive, breeds a thousand evils more destructive and more difficult to overcome than poverty itself. The very features of a given case which constitute its strongest appeal for help, are the ones which render it almost impossible to afford relief, however much help is given. This, the experience of all philanthropists, is many times repeated in the history of our work, and the wisest discrimination is necessary to ensure that our efforts shall be made where the greatest good can be done; not necessarily where misery and ignorance utter their loudest wail.

One of our missionaries writes from a field where the people are living very near the line of absolute starvation. They are as ignorant as could be inferred by the most logical mind from their whole past history; they are as bigoted and superstitious as their training can legitimately make them; they are as much in need of what the missionary offers them as a people can be. If he partially educates the children, the Stygian darkness of their homes seems to blot out what they have learned; if he enrolls them in the temperance army, they lose step when they pass the boundary of childhood; if a hopeful revival comes to cheer his heart, causing him to forget his past toils and despair, the converts over whom he rejoiced are swallowed up by the old churches about him, which teach salvation through loud shouting or semi-occasional feet-washing; and his hopes would die, only that there are a few bright ones among the children who have twined themselves about his heart.

Amid the almost universal chorus of rejoicing from all parts of the field over abundant and cheering results, there comes, once in a while, a note like this from one who labors, not less abundantly or acceptably than others, but with more doubtful success.

From another field, the missionary tells of a revival commencing among his own people, which was the signal for desperate _rival_ as well as revival efforts in the other colored churches, directed largely to the end of drawing away from him the results of his labors. He notes a fact which seems to him strange, but one which, we apprehend, is destined to repeat itself with great frequency as the work of education goes on. The colored people seemed less responsive to the efforts which the church, unusually active, puts forth. As the negro becomes more intelligent, we hope and believe that he will prove less highly inflammable; and he should comfort himself with the assurance that the results of all genuine religious revivals belong to the Lord, and we will rejoice in it all, under whatever banner the new recruit marches. The bigotry of sectarianism, which is of ofttimes so trying, should be classed with other sins which the Gospel, rightly preached and broadly illustrated, will in time remove; and, if under educational influence, the negro kindles more slowly to religious zeal, he will doubtless burn more steadily, and in the end yield more light and heat.

* * * * *

TEACHER OR MISSIONARY, WHICH?

The _Natal Mercury_, South Africa, paints a dark picture of the Caffres, even of those who have professed Christianity. Many fathers, it says, still sell their daughters in marriage for cattle as in years past, and many practice polygamy, which still has a very strong hold upon those of whom better things ought to be expected.

This is, indeed, cause for deep regret, but ought not to be of great surprise. It may be true, that by one supreme exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the results of a whole life of debauchery can be corrected in a single moment; that impure imaginations and dominant appetites and perverted tastes may all be utterly eradicated, and the degraded slave of many years restored to the normal condition of an uncorrupted child. This may be, for men assert that it has been done; but, most assuredly, it is not so common as to be expected ordinarily.

The prodigal who has gone into a far country has a long journey to retrace, and he comes back with many swinish tastes and habits of thought which he masters, if at all, by most persistent, prayerful and painful efforts.

The grace of Christ comes in as most stimulating and efficient aid in these efforts; but it comes as aid to effect, and not in the form of accomplished result. What the exact, literal truth may be in the poet-prophet’s prediction, that “a nation shall be born in a day,” we do not know; what new forces may be called into play, or what added efficiency may be given to those now employed, when the kingdom advances with millennial power and celerity, we know not; but as yet, no labor-saving machinery is known to the Church militant. The Gospel has still to be carried by laborious, self-denying effort into the homes of the degraded, and it gains its victories, if surely yet slowly, over the vices and evils of man’s corrupted heart and life, and he comes to the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus by a gradual growth.

The Sandwich Islands afford the striking illustration of the prophecy to which allusion has been made. But, in this case, the “day” covers more than half a century, and has not yet reached its meridian, and even there deplorable facts prove that the mass of the people might be “born again and again,” as the good colored preacher has it, with advantage. We are told that in the homes of the people are yet to be found many of the fruits of their long degradation—much impurity of life, little of the spiritual strength and elevation of character which the Gospel produces as its ripened fruit.

The question comes, and often with a pressure from our friends, as to the multiplication of missionaries, and, of course, because of our limited means, corresponding diminution of educational work. Our work is limited by the money put into our hands, and, therefore, we are compelled to choose between them, when we cannot do both of two desirable things. It would be pleasant, and a source of great spiritual comfort and social advantage every way, if we could send an excellent Christian woman into every negro cabin of the South, who should bring her refined womanhood into loving and sympathetic contact with the ignorant and lonely aunties, who never see a cultured white woman socially. It were easily possible to organize an evangelistic movement which would set the religious nature of the negro ablaze, and gather the people by tens of thousands into the churches which could be erected with the money now employed to sustain our schools; but all this would leave the negro helpless, at the mercy of the bulldozer or debaucher, and still under the control of his licentious and dishonest habits.

The work must be more thorough, and, therefore, more tedious than this. The negro _character_ needs to be created in germ, and then developed into a worthy manhood and womanhood by thorough Christian culture, and the best and only adequate missionaries are the Christian teachers in our schools.

Conversion, as the negro in his ignorance understands it, is not the most important or desirable thing to be accomplished. We must first secure an enlightenment of the understanding, a toning up of the moral constitution, which shall give value to conversion when it does occur. Conversion is but the beginning of a new life—a beginning which is utterly worthless except in connection with an adequate conception of what that life is, and unless that life follows. No one who at all comprehends the nature of the work to be done, will advocate other policy than the one we now pursue of “hastening slowly.” We must enlarge, equip and multiply our educational facilities through the South. When this has been done, the number of missionaries may be multiplied manifold with advantage; but to displace or weaken educational agencies for those that aim at conversion and spiritual comfort, would prove utterly disastrous.

* * * * *

WRONGS OF THE PONCAS.